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<\/p>\nThe French foreign ministry has summoned Pakistan’s envoy to protest claims made by President Dr Arif Alvi that a French bill cracking down on radical Islam stigmatises Muslims.<\/p>\n
Addressing a conference on religion on Saturday, President Alvi\u00a0said: “When you see that laws are being changed in favour of a majority to isolate a minority, that is a dangerous precedent.”<\/p>\n
Specifically referring to the legislation drafted after the beheading of a French teacher by a radical over blasphemous caricatures, the president said: “When you insult the Prophet [Muhammad (PBUH)], you insult all Muslims.<\/p>\n
“I urge the political leadership of France not to entrench these attitudes into laws… You have to bring people together \u2013 not to stamp a religion in a certain manner and create disharmony among the people or create bias.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Pakistan was one of several Muslim countries that saw angry anti-French protests in October over President Emmanuel Macron’s defence of the right to show derogatory sketches depicting the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).<\/p>\n
Pakistan with the second-largest number of Muslims in the world after Indonesia does not have an ambassador in France.<\/p>\n
The French foreign ministry said late Monday it had called in Pakistan’s charge d’affaires to mark “our surprise and our disapproval [over President Alvi’s remarks], given that the bill contains no discriminatory element”.<\/p>\n
“It is guided by the basic principles of freedom of religion and conscience, makes no distinction between the different religions and applies therefore equally to all faiths,” the ministry said.<\/p>\n
“Pakistan must understand this and adopt a constructive attitude for our bilateral relations,” it added.<\/p>\n
The bill adopted by the lower house of the French parliament last week is dubbed the “anti-separatism” bill in reference to Macron’s claim that Islamists are closing themselves off from French society by refusing to embrace secularism, gender equality and other French values.<\/p>\n
The legislation significantly expands the state’s powers to close religious organisations and places of worship if they are found to air “theories or ideas” that “provoke hate or violence towards a person or people”.<\/p>\n
It also creates a new crime of “separatism” — described as threatening a public servant in order to gain “a total or partial exemption or different application of the rules” \u2013 that is punishable by up to five years in prison.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Imran Khan in October accused Macron of “attacking Islam” and choosing to “encourage Islamophobia” for defending the right to publish blasphemous caricatures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The French foreign ministry has summoned Pakistan’s envoy to protest claims made by President Dr<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"yoast_head":"\n